“Matter of shame, TMC making efforts to protect Sandeshkhali accused”: PM Modi in Barasat

Barasat (West Bengal) [India], March 6 (ANI): Calling the women of Sandeshkhali, his parivar (family), Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government of shielding the accused in the Sandeshkhali case and said that it is a “matter of shame.”

Addressing a women’s rally at Barasat, North 24 Parganas district, PM Modi said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was committed to the cause of women’s empowerment and safety.

“Under TMC’s rule, the women of this land have been tortured. Whatever happened in Sandeshkhali will put anyone to shame but the TMC government does not care about your issues. TMC government is hell-bent on saving the perpetrator. Their acts were first condemned by the High Court and then the Supreme Court as well. TMC leaders have committed atrocities on the women of the state. Leaders of TMC are torturing the women from poor, Dalit, and Adivasis groups. TMC govt trusts its leaders more than it trusts the women of Bengal. TMC has full confidence in their leader but not in the women of West Bengal,” the Prime Minister said.

PM Modi further said that there is an eclipse in the name of TMC in Bengal adding that West Bengal CM is not allowing the development of this state to move forward.

“TMC government can never provide protection to women. Whereas, the BJP government has decided to award life imprisonment for heinous crimes like rape. For easy registration of women’s complaints, we have arranged for a ‘Women Helpine’, but the TMC government is not letting it operate in West Bengal. This TMC government can never work for the welfare of women,” he added.

The Prime Minister further asserted that this huge program is proof of how BJP is making ‘Naari Shakti’ the power of ‘Viksit Bharat’.

“On 9th January, BJP started the ‘Shakti Vandan’ campaign across the country. During this, interactions with lakhs of self-help groups were done across the country and today, in West Bengal there is a huge program organised for members of the self-help groups,” he said.

Highlighting the inauguration of development projects in Kolkata, PM Modi said that modernizing the country’s public transport is a priority of the government.

“Before coming here, I was at a program in Kolkata where I inaugurated many development projects of the Government of India. Today, new routes connected to the Kolkata Metro, Pune Metro, Kochi Metro, Agra Metro and Namo Bharat trains have been expanded together. Before 2014, only 28 kilometres route of the Kolkata Metro was built and in the last 10 years, 31 kilometres route of the Kolkata Metro has been added. Modernizing the country’s public transport is a priority of the government of India,” PM Modi said.

Tension rose in Sandeshkhali after hundreds of women on the island came out on the streets against Shahjahan Sheikh, accusing him of perpetrating sexual abuse and other excesses on them along with his henchmen.

After weeks of no action, on February 29 Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Sheikh Shahjahan was arrested by West Bengal police after which West Bengal’s Basirhat Court remanded him to 10-day police custody.

PM Modi is on a three-day visit to states including Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, West Bengal and Bihar from March 4 to 6.